A Vision Stained with Red (The Continuation)
by Softballpup12
Summary: Originally started by XDCaramel, "A Vision Stained with Red" racked up 3k Reviews and 2k Follows and Favs on it's first 20 chapters, whereupon the author sadly passed it on to me. Ever since she was born, Bella Swan has seen numbers. Not normal numbers, no, normal numbers were for normal people, and Bella was no normal person. The numbers she saw represented one thing, death.
1. Prologue & Chapter 1

_**I have adopted this story from the wonderful XDCaramel and I hope to improve it and add to it as best I can. I truly hope you appreciate my version, and do not mind the editing I have done. I plan to update regularly and wish you all happy reading. :)**_

 _ **~Hayden**_

* * *

 **A Vision Stained with Red**

 **Prologue**

They say that we should always "Live every day as if it were our last". You never know when you're going to die, they say, so you might as well enjoy every moment of your life to its fullest.

 _You_ may not know when you will die, how you will die, or where you will die, but I do.

They also say knowledge is power, and I am living proof that this is true. I can add years onto the clock hovering blood red over the top of your head.

If I wish, that is. Fate has a funny way of repaying us for saving lives. They often take one in return. Most likely our own.

I'd given a lot of thought to how I would die, and I never would have guessed it'd be by fate's revenge.

But I never would have guessed I'd meet them, either.

Or him.

And I regret nothing.

 **Chapter 1: Somewhere I Belong**

My head snapped up from my book when they called my flight.

Sighing, I put away my book and stood up, picking up my backpack. The terminal was flooded with people, all heading towards different flights, Blurry red streaks counting down till the exact second they would die. Years:Days:Hours:Minutes:Seconds. Five simple numbers that told me when you would die, and a vivid vision of how if I saw you within 24 hours of your death. Don't ask me why the big man in the sky skipped months and weeks, you may as well ask me why I see numbers.

A man who looked to be in his mid twenties boarded the plane in front of me. _0:6:21:48:23._ I wondered if the man knew he had just under a week to live. Who was I kidding? Of course he didn't. I considered telling him for a split second, but he'd probably have me thrown in a mental asylum.

There weren't many people on my flight, which was nice. I was always a loner. Being around a lot of people made me feel uneasy. I hated death.

I was always a loner back in my old school in Phoenix. That was where I used to live with my mother and stepfather, Phil.

My fellow students avoided me, labeling me a freak. I was quiet and reserved. I didn't have many friends, if any at all. I think it was due to my curse that people stayed away from me. No one knew about it of course, but it was as if they sensed something was off about me, and stayed away.

Not even my own mother, Renee, knew about these numbers. Well, not _really_ knew about them.

When I was four, I spoke to her about them. I was born like this so I didn't know as a child that normal people _didn't_ see numbers. Renee got worried and a little annoyed I was 'making up' things and told me not to speak of it again. I never did.

The numbers I could handle. What I could never get used to were the flash visions I saw upon seeing someone who would die in the next 24 hours. I remembered my first experience with these visions when I was seven. I saw my neighbor, Dylan. He came to my front door to ask if I could play and in a blink of an eye he was burning, covered with smoke and engulfed in flames. I started screaming and crying, and Renee couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. He died in a house fire that night.

I was partly thankful that Forks would be my new home. I was moving there to be with my biological father, Charlie Swan, police chief of Forks, Washington. The town population was just over 3000 people, so it was a bit of a relief that I wouldn't see as many numbers and visions.

It was nice to get a rreprieve from the madness of my life in Phoenix. Forks seemed, although dreary and boring, peaceful.

I didn't think I'd run into anything exciting there.

Once settled in my seat and the plane was in the air, I took out my black iPod. Call me 'emo', but almost everything I owned, from mere objects to clothing, was in black or white. Sometimes gray. Why you ask?

They are the colours of death.

Always being surrounded by and knowledgeable of other people's death was getting to me. It was actually kind of sad, being such a doom and gloom kid. I wasn't depressed or anything, but neither was I incredibly cheerful. I'm better in the happy department now, but as I said before, all this death stuff gets to you after a while.

Renee always wanted a pretty little girl who would wear bright colours and summer dresses. Keep dreaming, Mom. With everything I see, you just don't do 'happy-go-lucky'.

Gluing my eyes out the window, I headed towards my new life. Renee wanted to spend time with Phil. She didn't like getting tied down with me, especially since I wasn't her 'ideal' daughter, although she'd never say that out loud. I knew she loved me, but I also knew that I was a disappointment.

I hadn't been to Forks much in the past. I used to spend a month in the summer there as a kid, but that stopped a few years ago. Now, I barely saw Charlie at all.

I eventually fell asleep in my seat. I must have been sleeping for a long time, because when I woke up, the plane was about to land. Once it landed, I grabbed my backpack and went to meet Charlie.

I searched around the terminal, my eyes scanning the crowd for a middle-aged man with curly dark hair. There were too many dark-haired men around here. Instead, I looked at the numbers. I remembered Charlie's death age was 79, so all I had to do was find a time that started with 42 and match it with the right guy.

I finally spotted him. "Charlie!" I called. I said his first name since I knew that if I said 'dad', half the men in the terminal would've turned around.

"Bella!" he said, giving me an awkward one-armed hug when he reached me. Charlie was never one to show or voice his emotions much. It was just fine with me.

"Hi, Dad," I said.

And that was pretty much the highlight of our conversation.

Charlie wasn't a talkative guy, which was great for me. I mean, what was there to talk about with him anyway? I didn't remember anyone in Forks to talk about, and it wasn't like he really wanted to hear about Renee and her fantastic new husband Phil.

He pulled up to his, or rather, our house and helped me carry my stuff inside. My room was small… really small. The bed took up a majority of the floor space and a decrepit old computer sat on a wooden desk on the opposite side of the room. Ah, home, sweet home.

"So…" Charlie said, obviously searching for something to talk about. Finding nothing, he said, "I'll, uh, I'll leave you to unpack." And left the room.

Okay, then. This was exciting.

Having nothing else to do, I unpacked, but that didn't take very long and I was left once again, doing nothing. I knew Forks wasn't going to be exciting, but this was just overkill. The only good thing about this place was the lack of people.

For that sole reason alone, Forks seemed like somewhere I belonged. I liked solitude. Since I couldn't see my own numbers, even when I looked in the mirror, I felt normal when I was alone.

Was I destined to become a hermit?

"Bella!" I jumped when I heard Charlie calling my name.

"Yeah?" I called back, coming down the stairs. My foot caught on thin air and I stumbled on the last step, nearly falling flat on my face. That was another thing about me; put me in an empty room with a flat, stable surface, and I will most definitely find something or another to trip on. I was beyond clumsy. I was practically disabled.

"Whoa," Charlie said, grabbing my arm to steady me.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Come outside, I have something to show you. My friend just dropped it off a second ago." Charlie led me outdoors. I was puzzled; what did he want me to see?

Outside on the driveway was an old red truck. I was even more confused. Was there a reason Charlie wanted me to see this…?

"Call it a homecoming gift," Charlie said, putting his hand on the side of the truck. All of the sudden, it clicked in my head.

"Th-that's for me?" I stuttered. The truck may not have been modern, but it was most certainly different. Surprisingly, I really liked it. It had personality; something other cars nowadays sorely lacked. I smiled as I examined the vehicle. How old was this thing?

"Yup. It's a 1950's Chevy. Is it okay?" he asked nervously.

I nodded vigorously. "Of course it's okay! I love it! Thanks, Dad," I said sincerely. I really did like it.

Charlie nodded, satisfied, before going back inside.

Okay, that was exciting for about all of five minutes. Now what?

I then remembered that Charlie couldn't cook at all and decided to entertain myself with cooking for the next couple of hours. I sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

The next morning was foggy and dreary, not that I expected any different. It had rained last night. The spattering of the raindrops against the glass of my window gave me no comfort as I tried to sleep. It was so unfamiliar and different from Arizona. It made me miss Phoenix ten times more.

 _Stop it, Bella. Forks and Forks' tiny population is far better for your sanity_.

It was the middle of the semester at Forks Highschool and I would be the new girl. In a town this small, I doubted the school got a lot of new people. Great. I'd probably be like a new fascinating shiny object. I didn't like being the center of attention. Me, plus spotlight, plus a lot of people, didn't mix.

Gulping down a granola bar and a glass of milk, I left for school. Charlie had already left for work before I even came downstairs.

To my relief, the rest of the cars in the school parking lot were relatively old, like mine. It's not that I was ashamed of my truck. I just didn't want to stick out more than I already did. The only car in the lot that didn't look quite as junky as the rest of them was a shiny silver Volvo.

I found my way to the main office, where I asked the secretary for my schedule.

"Hi," I said as the woman at the front desk looked up. "I'm Isabella Swan." I saw the recognition of my name in her eyes and suspected, without a doubt, that I had been the topic of gossip among the women around here.

She dug through the piles of papers and files on her desk, producing the ones she was looking for. "Here's your schedule and a map of the school." She helped me a bit with the directions to each of my classes and gave me a slip for each of my teachers to sign. I was supposed to bring it back by the end of the day.

While she was explaining all this to me, I very subtly and quickly glanced at the numbers above her head. It was a habit I had developed long ago. I was always curious to know when other people would die. I know that sounded slightly psychotic, but if you had the means to find out, wouldn't you use them?

I could tell a person had numbers, through my peripheral vision, but I needed to actually look straight at the numbers in order to tell which numbers they were. It only took one glance to see and calculate the date of their death, since I'd been doing this ever since I learned to subtract. I had this weird inner eye that also told me how old someone currently was; no numbers though. Glancing at the spaces above peoples' heads was simply an automatic thing. I always did it when looking at a person I didn't see on a regular basis. I did it so quickly though, with such speed, that no one really noticed, which was good. I mean, what the hell would I say to them if they asked? That would be one awkward situation.

My first class was English with some guy called Mr. Mason. I tucked my head deeper into the hood of my black jacket as I approached Building 3. As I walked by various strangers in their similar dark raincoats, I couldn't help but hear their whispers.

" _Look, it's the new girl. Something Swan."_

" _Isabella Swan. I heard she's a goth._

" _She does look kinda depressed…"_

" _That's not gothic, that's emo, genius."_

I rolled my eyes, but their words did get me thinking. Did I look depressed?

" _I heard back in Arizona, she got pregnant… twice!"_

" _No way!"_

" _Yeah. Left the babies with her mom."_

" _Where did you hear this?"_

"…"

She made it up herself, obviously. This was why I was dreading starting a new school. In a town so small, everyone knew each other. A new person from the sunny state of Arizona was the highlight of the gossip surrounding Forks. I had no doubts that a dozen different rumors were already surrounding me. I already heard two. Well, one and a half. The first one about me being gothic was, I guess, partially true. I did where a lot of black. At least I didn't use black lipstick or thick, slightly scary, eyeliner.

English passed without incident, except for the gawking of the other students. Seriously! Even when they knew that _I_ knew they were staring at me, they kept at it. What ever happened to manners?

At the end of the class, a guy with black hair and unhealthy skin came over to me.

"You're Isabella Swan, right?" he asked.

"Just Bella," I corrected. As usual, my eyes flickered at lightning speed to the space above his head. Nothing out of the norm there, at least not for me. This habit was really something I couldn't control.

"I'm Eric. Do you want me to help you find your way to your next class?" he asked, sounding overly-eager.

"Uh, sure," I said, with a small smile. He seemed like a nice guy.

The rest of the morning went without trouble. Walking around the school and through the pitifully thin crowds made me really notice the difference in population here. I didn't have the usual headache from seeing all the jumbled numbers and visions in the huge crowds back home. It was actually kind of nice.

After the first couple of classes, I started recognizing half of the faces around me. I guess it wasn't uncommon to have a few people who shared an almost exact copy of your schedule here. I also noticed that a lot of the people, most of them actually, had pale skin, like me. Must have been from the lack of sun exposure. At least, in terms of skin, I fit right in here like a glove.

I met a girl in my Trig and Spanish classes. She was several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but the difference in our heights was mostly made up through her incredibly curly dark hair. She was very talkative. She didn't even need you to listen closely to her; I certainly wasn't. Her name was Jennifer or Jessica or something beginning with J.

The J-girl had me sit with her and her friends at lunch. That was certainly new.

Back in Phoenix, I was used to sitting by myself at lunch. Everyone else knew it too. In fact, there was a table reserved just for my solitude. When you thought about it, it was kind of sad, in the pathetic sense anyway. I had trouble relating to people because of my… 'ability' that no one knew about. I shied away from others, not wanting to form an unnecessary bond. It was unnerving to talk and laugh and be friends with someone, knowing when they would die. Even possibly _how_ they would die.

In reality, it slightly scared me.

You'd think after seventeen years of seeing these numbers and visions, it wouldn't affect me very often, but, it did.

The table was full of the J-girl's friends. I forgot all their names at once. I usually had an excellent memory, but if I didn't care about something, like those students' names, I didn't even put an effort into remembering it.

I sat down, only half listening to the rambles the other teenagers at the table were telling me. My eyes very briefly scanned the spaces above their heads as usual before starting to wander about the rest of the cafeteria. Lunch had to be the only time I felt _crowded_. Suddenly, what seemed like such a small number of people before, was now much bigger when being stuffed in one room.

You'd think with over three hundred and fifty people in one room, I wouldn't be able to individualize whose numbers were whose, but I had no problem.

You'd also think that with the big heap of numbers in the room, someone different would have been able to blend in without difficulty. But it was as if everyone was wearing a black hat and I was a bird flying over the cafeteria. You'd be able to pick out any red hats in seconds. It was that simple.

So that's why, when I saw something new, something I've never seen before, I was able to immediately differentiate them from everyone else.

And I saw the different ones.

I saw _them._

And I also saw what was above their heads.

Or rather… the lack thereof.


	2. Chapter 2

_So that's why, when I saw something new, something I've never seen before, I was able to immediately differentiate them from everyone else._

 _And I saw the different ones._

 _I saw them._

 _And I also saw what was above their heads._

 _Or rather… the lack thereof._

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The Blower's Daughter**

Five people.

Five people were sitting at table. They had trays full of food in front of them, but none of them were touching them, let alone eating. I could see them very clearly, even though they were across the cafeteria. They were beautiful. All of them. So perfectly beautiful to the point of inhumanity. They were all different, but had a single, common feature, pale, white skin. There were too girls and three boys. They were barely even talking to each other. At first glance, you might think they were statues.

The two girls were like night and day. There was a taller one, her height obvious despite the fact she was sitting down. She had long blonde hair and was so unbelievably gorgeous, it almost hurt to look at her. She made my self-esteem immediately plummet. The smaller girl was pixie like. She had short, spiky black hair and dressed in designer clothes.

One of the boys was big and muscular, like a weight lifter. He had curly dark hair and was very handsome. Another one of the boys was tall, lanky, but still strong-looking, with shaggy blonde hair. He too looked like a male model, as if he just walked out of a photo shoot.

The last boy was of course, utterly gorgeous, and something about him, I didn't know what, intrigued me. He was tall and muscular, but it was not as obvious as it was with the weight lifter. His hair was in a casual disarray and was the most unique bronze colour.

Their unbelievable beauty was enough to make anyone stare at them.

But that wasn't why I was staring, of course.

They didn't have numbers.

For them… I couldn't see anything.

I saw nothing.

I froze, staring at them. I said I didn't need to be looking straight at the tops of their heads to know if they had numbers, and I knew they didn't. My eyes flickered, as par usual habit, to the spaces directly above their heads anyway, just to make sure.

Nothing.

Just empty space.

That was impossible! How the hell could that be? My mind was practically screaming profanities at me, being unable to comprehend the numberless group.

How could this be? I blinked a few times, like if I opened and closed my eyes enough times, the numbers would suddenly appear.

Impossible.

Or… improbable?

I couldn't wrap my mind around this ridiculous concept. What was different about those five people? I could see numbers on every human, and from what I could tell, they were definitely human.

I squinted my eyes. Maybe their numbers were just really, _really_ tiny.

No such luck.

As I stared, and stared, and stared, the incomprehensible slowly sank in.

My breathing was coming faster as I stared in disbelief. I'm sure I looked like I had seen a ghost. If I didn't calm down now, I would start hyperventilating. Not. Good.

All of a sudden, the bronze haired guy whipped around and his eyes met mine. I stifled a gasp at how… piercing they were. I couldn't see the colour, but I felt like he was trying to look right through me. I couldn't look away.

As if my mind was still in denial, my eyes flickered once more to the space above his head, just to make sure. Nothing.

This had to be some kind of mistake. Some kind of flaw.

And it was seriously freaking me out.

I needed to get out of here. The weirdness and just plain disability of my mind to grasp this development, was suffocating me. Pressing down on me, trying to get me to collapse under the weight of it.

I stood out of my chair abruptly.

"Bella?" the J-girl said confusedly. My eyes still impossibly wide and glued on the five people, I took a few steps towards the doors. "Bella, what's wrong? You look totally creeped out."

 _Because I am,_ I thought. "Um, I don't feel well," I said pathetically, and fled from the cafeteria. Call it an overreaction, but I couldn't help being scared out of my wits. You don't go seventeen years of seeing the same thing, and then suddenly see something impossibly _different_ , and not get freaked out.

I went into the girl's bathroom and locked myself into one of the stalls. My head was pounding with this… this… _thing!_

I rubbed my temples, trying to soothe the pain. Great, I go to Forks for some peace of mind, and end up getting the exact opposite. This was worse than the huge, bustling crowds of Phoenix. I didn't know if you could understand just how _impossible_ this was.

There were only two instances in which I could look at a person and not see their numbers.

1) If I was looking at myself. For some weird reason, I couldn't see my own numbers. I was grateful for that actually. I would hate seeing when I would die. It would've made me majorly depressed.

2) If I was looking at a dead body of a person. I had been to open casket funerals before, and the bodies of the dead person had no numbers. How could they? The numbers showed me when a person would die. If they were already dead, well…

Wait, ' _if they were already dead'_ … Was it possible that…?

 _Puh-leese_ , my mind thought sarcastically. _Already dead_ , my ass. They were clearly alive. One guy freaking turned around and looked at me! If that wasn't proof enough that he was alive, I didn't know _what_ was.

Okay, now that _that_ stupid impossibility was out of the way, what was the real reason?

It was just so… ARGH! It was so frustrating how impossible this was! Every human had numbers. It was a simple fact.

So why didn't they?

Why was it only them?

* * *

What made those 5 people so special?

As much as I would have liked to, I couldn't stay in the bathroom forever. Still confused, and with my head still aching, I quietly unlocked the stall and walked up to the sinks. Gripping the edge of the sink, I took deep breaths to try and calm my heart. There was probably a perfectly logical explanation for this. I just had yet to figure it out.

The door of the bathroom opened and I heard footsteps, but I didn't look up.

"Are you okay?" a high soprano voice asked.

I turned around and froze.

The two girls from the 5 Wonder People, as I was now calling them, stood before me. The smaller pixie one was the one who spoke. She looked at me curiously, her head tilted slightly to one side. The taller blonde one looked at me coldly, her eyes hard, as if I were an annoying fly she'd like to swat away.

My gaze, again, flew with amazing speed to the tops of their heads, then back down to their faces. Even though I already knew there wouldn't be anything up there, it was automatic. When I looked at the empty spaces above their heads, I couldn't help but feel a little shock go through me.

It was just so bizarre.

I then realized this was the first time in my entire life I was looking at someone who was alive, other than myself, and didn't see any numbers. It was so strange. Was this how normal people felt like? Was this what it was like for Renee and Charlie and the J-girl?

To just look at a person, and see nothing but the person…

It was just so alien that I felt like running from that bathroom, screaming the whole way.

When I looked back at the pixie girl's face, it was even more curious than before, as if she saw my little eye-to-the-head routine. I knew she couldn't have though; I was too fast. I purposely looked away from the blonde one; she was too intimidating.

The pixie girl extended her pale, slender hand to me and I stared at it as if it were an extra terrestrial's. I heard a tinkling laugh and looked up. The pixie girl was looked very amusedly at me.

"Ever seen a hand shake before?" she asked in her light, musical voice. It sounded like chimes.

I blushed bright red, embarrassed at my apparent rudeness. They probably thought I was mentally handicapped. I slowly, almost cautiously grasped her hand with my own. I jumped ever so slightly when our skin did come in contact. Her hand was icy cold, as if she had stuck it in an ice bucket. I looked up at her eyes, surprised. She smiled apologetically at me. For someone so tiny, her grip was firm.

"I'm Alice Cullen," she said, releasing my hand.

"Bella Swan," I said quietly back, trying to discreetly put my hand in my pocket, for warmth.

"It's nice to meet you, Bella. This is my sister, Rosalie Hale." Sister? But they didn't look anything alike. And how come her last name is different?

Reading the confusion on my face, Alice quickly explained. "Rosalie and I aren't related by blood. All of us are the adoptive kids of Dr. Carlisle Cullen."

"All of us?" I asked, quickly glancing at the top of her head again. The empty space was just so new to me and very fascinating.

"The five of us. Me, Rosalie, and the three other boys in the cafeteria."

"Oh…" So all five of the Wonder People were part of the same family, eh? _And the plot thickens…_

"You never did answer my question. Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh. Uh, yeah. I'm fine," I said, snapping out of my trance. "I, uh, gotta go."

I rushed past them and out of the bathroom without stumbling once. New record.

The bell rang as I walked down the hall. I stopped at my locker and pulled out my books and schedule. I had Biology next. As I walked towards my classroom, I kept glancing around me, keeping on the lookout for the Wonder People. After my weird behavior at lunch and the mini confrontation in the girls' bathroom, they probably all thought I was some phsyco.

The classroom was almost full when I arrived. I walked up to the teacher to have him sign my slip.

"So… Miss Swan, welcome to Biology," the teacher, Mr. Banner, said, bored. Like always, I peeked at his Numbers. 81 years old… that was pretty good. "You can take the empty seat over there, next to Edward Cullen." Cullen? One of the Wonder People?

Mr. Banner pointed to somewhere behind me. I turned around, and sure enough, the seat he was pointing to was right beside one of the Wonders. The bronze haired Wonder to be exact. He was even more gorgeous when not being looked at from across a cafeteria.

I walked forward and seated myself slowly. As soon as I sat down, his body stiffened. It became as still as a statue, literally. His white hands gripped the edge of the table so tightly, I thought he would surely break the table. He leaned away from me, as if I were something disgusting. I peeked at him from the corner of my eye and saw that he was staring right back at me. No, not staring, _glaring_. He looked at me with such a fierce glare, full of animosity, that if looks could kill, I would've spontaneously combusted then and there, no matter what my numbers said. His hate filled eyes were coal black and so full of revulsion, I had to stop myself from whimpering and cowering away like an idiot.

His pitch black eyes stared at me for a few moments longer before he averted his face, probably repulsed by me. I felt annoyance and a twinge of anger.

I took the time he wasn't burning holes in my head to gaze once more at the top of his head. Still nothing. I had to resist the urge to feel the air above his head. I knew the numbers weren't solid and my hand would only go through them, but still…

I tried to stop looking at him, but throughout the long and dragging period, I found myself constantly peeking at him, hoping each time that his stiff stance had relaxed somewhat. It never did.

The bell finally rang, making me jump. Faster than I could have ever imagined, Edward Cullen practically sprang from his seat and flew from the room. I stared at his empty seat shocked.

"Isabella Swan?" I turned around to face a blonde, blue eyed boy my age. He had a slightly baby face and seemed like the generic popular boy. He wasn't nearly as handsome as Edward Cullen, but he was cute. I recognized him as one of the people sitting at my lunch table. What was his name again?

"Bella," I corrected, trying to remember his name. After another second I gave up. My eyes flickered to his numbers. 77. That was pretty normal. I looked back to his face to see him smiling at me.

"I'm Mike Newton. I sat with you at lunch," he said. I nodded.

"I remember…" Mike was in my next class, Gym, so he walked with me. He liked to talk a lot. He was very friendly, but seemed like the overly eager type. Not a bad guy though.

Luckily, I didn't have to participate in Gym on my first day, so I stayed off to the side, sitting on the bleachers. I doodled pictures on my paper, not really paying attention to what I was drawing, as I thought again about what I saw today.

It puzzled me. Confused me.

All I knew was that something was different about those Cullens/Hales. My head was still aching as the insanity of this entire situation rolled around in my mind. Ugh, it was just so frustrating!

The bell rang once more, signaling the end of the school day, and possibly the most confusing day of my life.

The next day wasn't much less peculiar.

People didn't stare at me as much as they did the day before and I was remembering their names better, the ones I sat with at lunch. The J-girl, who I now remembered as Jessica, was as talkative as yesterday, while Mike Newton was starting to remind me of a Golden Retriever, the way he would follow me and carry my books seemed very doglike.

I had been dreading lunch the entire morning. When I woke up, I had thought for a moment that I'd dreamt the whole thing. That the Wonder People didn't exist, or that they did, but had numbers like everyone else. I was kind of hoping that it was all a nightmare; that my first day at school hadn't happened yet.

Of course my hopes were dashed when I pulled into the school parking lot, and Mike waved hello to me from across the lot. If he knew who I was, then yesterday was not a dream.

Damn it.

Lunch time rolled around and I felt my stomach do flops as I walked to the cafeteria. It wasn't only the abnormalities called the Cullens and Hales that I dreaded seeing; I vividly remembered Edward Cullen's hatred of me, and I was really not looking forward to seeing him again.

I bought my lunch and sat down beside Jessica, who was babbling away. I turned my head and took a peek at the Wonder table. I stiffened in surprise.

Four heads.

And none of them were bronze.

I counted again and sure enough, there were only four people sitting there. Nice. So I repulsed him so much that he couldn't come to school? Did he hate me so much that he couldn't stand to spend one period sitting next to me?

"Bella?" I heard Jessica say.

"Huh?" I snapped my head back to her. She looked at me with knowing eyes.

"Staring at the Cullen table again?"

I shrugged and took one last look at the table. Yup, still only four people.

"Who exactly are they?" I asked Jessica. Maybe if she told me some more stuff about them, it'd help unlock the mystery of their numberless heads.

"Dr. Cullen and Mrs. Cullen's kids. Not real kids. Adoptive kids."

"All of them?"

"Um, no, only three. The Hales, the blondes, are twins, and they're their foster kids. I think they're actually Mrs. Cullen's niece and nephew. Her and her husband are too young to have teenage kids; they're only in their twenties, maybe early thirties."

"What are their names?" I asked, despite already knowing three.

"The blonde guy is Jasper and his sister is Rosalie. The tiny girl is Alice, and she's really weird, by the way. And… the big dark-haired guy is Emmett. The guy who's not here today, he's Edward Cullen. He's single, but don't waste your time on him. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good enough for him." I wondered when he had turned her down.

When I walked into Biology, just as I suspected, Edward Cullen wasn't there. What was surprising was that I almost felt… _disappointed._ Sure, I hated the way he glared at me, but I guess I found the empty space above his head so fascinating, I wanted more time to investigate.

By investigate, I meant stare.

What disappointed me further was that he wasn't in school the next day either.

Or the next day.

Or the next day.

Make it the whole freaking week he was absent.

Call me crazy, but I somehow felt responsible for his absence at school.

And I was a little miffed about it. What the hell did I do to him that made him need to drop out of school?!

By Monday, I had gotten used to him not being here. The disappointment I had felt that first day of his disappearance was short lived and I was now semi-comfortable here. Of course, he still stayed on my mind, much to my annoyance. I couldn't seem to get Edward Cullen out of my head. His coal black eyes were burned into my memory. As much as I wanted to push them away, they were always there, staring at me from behind my eyelids.

I didn't tell anyone this though. I tried to act normal, despite how I've never been normal in my life. No one here seemed to notice my weirdness though. They didn't care about the fact I only wore black, white, and gray clothes. They didn't care that I didn't speak much, or freaked out the first day of school.

For once in my life, people waved and said hello to me at school. I was so used to not having friends, it was alien to me.

And everyday I looked at the Cullen table at lunch.

And everyday they didn't have numbers.

When Monday morning rolled around, the water from the rain froze over, creating lethal ice. I drove extra careful to school that day, and as I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed the silver Volvo parked at the other end, but wasn't bothered by it.

That is, until the doors opened.

And five people walked out. My breath hitched and I froze. _Five_ people?! I clearly saw Edward Cullen getting out of the driver's side, talking with his siblings. I gulped. Great. Looked like he was back, and that meant so were his hate-filled glares. Just great. I watched as all five of them and their numberless heads went into the school. As soon as they were out of sight, I let out a sigh of relief. I was always less anxious when I couldn't see them and their lack of life spans.

I checked my watch and noticed there was still some time till I had to head to class. I pulled out my iPod and started listening to music. I figured it would've been a good distraction from the thought of Edward and Biology. "The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice started playing.

 _I can't take my mind off of you  
I can't take my mind off of you_

Ugh! This was _not_ what I needed! I was well aware I couldn't stop thinking of the Cullens, more specifically Edward, thank you!

I frustratingly put my iPod away and stared forward. I heard loud laughter and turned towards a group of guys. One of them slipped on a patch of ice and was half lying, half sitting, on his ass. His friends were laughing at him.

I looked sympathetically at the guy's face, knowing what it was like to slip and fall a lot.

And that's when my eyes glazed over and I had a flash vision.

Of his death.

* * *

 _ **SPECIAL SNEAK PEEK OF CHAPTER 3**_

" _Somebody save him!" I screamed as the car skidded across the ice._

* * *

 ** _So, what did you guys think? Did I change too much if you've read it or is it still ok? Please leave your thoughts in a review! Also, any new story ideas are appreciated!_**


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